1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to devices and methods for securing groups of two or more work pieces during machining.
2. Description of the Related Art
The precision machining of large work pieces, such as plate-like work pieces, requires the use of a wide array of machine tools such as gauges, templates, cooling systems, hydraulic clamps, and drill-sets. These tools are expensive to acquire and maintain.
Large work pieces, such as steel plates, are typically manufactured using a large gantry milling machine. In one conventional system, steel plates are stacked on a milling table and clamped at regular locations along their aligned peripheries so not to interfere with the machining process, which may involve one or more milling and/or drilling steps. A gantry is configured to move along tracks that extend parallel to the work pieces, such that the gantry provides an overhead tool head to support for one or more machining tools. The gantry may be adjusted along the length of the work pieces, and the tool head may be adjusted along x, y and z axes relative to the work pieces to machine the work pieces. As the process proceeds, there is a tendency of bulging between the work pieces as material shavings force themselves in between the work pieces. This problem is more pronounced as the size of the work pieces increase, the amount of machining that is done on the work pieces and as the distance from the clamped peripheral edges increases. For example, the problem may be come acute when the machining step occurs in a central region of these work pieces.
What is needed is a novel approach to clamping such work pieces.